It started off as a warm evening joining Catherine at park view estate but this time without her lovely son Liam. We split into two groups to be socially distanced but all carried out the same task: re-potting seedlings. Some of us repotted edible seedlings into light compost and some repotted flowers (geraniums and lavender) into dark compost. After the hour was up we had rehomed hundreds of seedlings and it was beginning to get chilly.

What a turnout. What a safe, productive, industrious, dedicated, companionable turnout.

A big sized team headed to the huge warehouse in Poplar today to be allocated many types of stocktacking tasks by project co-ordinator Richard:

Writes Becky

“A great crew of people dropping in and out today! Our task was sorting and organising with abandon.

Richard presented us with multiple crates of miscellaneous donations for logging, passing on/reusing… There was sports equipment aplenty (in the morning I think a lot of hard work was undertaken separating basketballs from footballs…), as well as bundles of craft items and lots of stationary.

Crate by crate we unpacked and reassembled in more crates: yep, crates of paints, crates of pencils... You get the picture. And we found all sorts of interesting goodies - a spikey pink ball and the coup de grace: an elf on the shelf.”

Nick​ agrees:

“Yep, another fun filled, busy day down at the warehouse where Richard had us stocktaking a wide array of donations (yoga mats, balls – lots, in all sizes - books by the hundreds; wool, embroidery items and knitting needles; games and jigsaws…), caging items up and, where necessary, wrapping in industrial cling film to prevent them escaping.

Provided you came wearing sufficient layers, to take account of the somewhat chilly conditions inside the warehouse today, it was another enjoyable (and, we hope, productive) day in deepest Poplar.”

What a team. A big, big thank you to everyone who took part in this fabulous Community Mission, and especially to Becky and Nick for writing the report and taking pics, and to Charlotte and Jacqui for their pics too.

And a huge warm welcome to Edmund and Kezia who both enjoyed their first GG session today. Come back soon!

Crisis Community Missions return next week: there are drop-in sessions on both Thursday and Friday, 21/1 and 22/2, if you fancy getting involved.